Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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He paints like birds sing

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

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This was actually my first Fredrik Backman but quite a few fellow Cannonballers mentioned this novel during one of the Zoom meet ups so I decided it was time to give him a shot (and then got distracted by other books). The story explores two timelines, 25 years apart. The present or later timeline (it’s a bit vague on specifics that would tie either timeline to a specific decade so when I say present, that’s just for simplicity) focuses on Louisa, a teen in foster […]

I was sixteen. I lived inside of myself way more than I lived inside of this town.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

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I started grabbing everything I could find and I had no idea what other people thought was good or what was important. And so I almost never told anyone what I liked because I was terrified that they would tell me how stupid it was. Every single thing that you loved became the source of both intense obsession and possible shame. Everything was a secret. ― Kevin Wilson, Now Is Not the Time to Panic Frankie is a sixteen-year-old girl with three feral older brothers […]

“What I was feeling, I now recognize, was the desire to be one of these people. To be proud and to beam and to look good.”

Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs by Dave Holmes

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When I was putting together my TBR pile for this year I specifically went back to lists of much older cannonballs for books I didn’t get to and was bummed about having not read and added a handful of them to this year. I’m having mixed results with that plan, though, although Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs by Dave Holmes got three stars from me which is better than the other so far, French Milk (incidentally I added them both in 2016 […]

My Favorite YA Since Rainbow Rowell!

Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth

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Author Alexene Farol Follmuth (aka Olivie Blake of The Atlas Six fame) wrote Twelfth Knight as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night. And, as the writer herself notes in the back matter of the book, the novel is written in the vein of early 2000s teen rom-coms (I’m thinking She’s the Man, for obvious reasons). The book follows the lives of two main characters: Viola “Vi”  Reyes and Jack “Duke” Orsino. Vi presents to her schoolmates as unapologetically herself – blunt, smart, and a […]

For everyone who was born before us, your story matters.

Back Then: A queer journey back in time by Ralf König and Łukasz Majcher

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Read what the old gay uncles and lesbian aunts have to say in colorful picture stories. And let’s all continue to fight together so that this will never happen again. ― Ralf König, Back Then: A queer journey back in time CBR16 Bingo: Pride I picked this up a couple of months ago at a literary festival. Other than Heartstopper and other Alice Oseman books, I’ve never bought graphic novels or comic books. One of the illustrators was selling this book as well as her […]

Bittersweet Coming of Age Manga

The Golden Sheep Vol. 1-3 by Kaori Ozaki

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Reading this was a good way to start the new year. The Golden Sheep is a three volume series that follows Tsugu as she returns to her childhood town after her parents get divorced. She is excited to reunite with her three childhood friends and get back to their previous closeness. However, while she’s been away dynamics have shifted and her reappearance riles things up. Tsugu expects things to have remained the same, but the friendship between the two boys (Yuushin and Sora) has turned […]



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